Desktop Metal Acquires Aidro

Desktop Metal has acquired Aidro, a company in the volume production of next-generation hydraulic and fluid power systems through metal additive manufacturing (AM) across a wide range of industries, including oil & gas, agricultural equipment, aerospace, and mobile and industrial machinery, among others.

Founded in 1982 and based in northern Italy, Aidro has aexperience in the design and production of valves, manifolds and various hydraulic components and fluid power systems. Aidro offers expertise in design for additive manufacturing, including finite element analysis simulation and topology optimization techniques. Aidro engineers leverage these technical capabilities to redesign traditional hydraulic components for AM production using complex geometries to reduce weight, save space and consolidate multiple components into one, eliminating assembly and welding requirements. Hydraulic components produced by Aidro using AM improve performance vs. conventional manufacturing by optimizing flow channel placement and geometry to increase flow capacity and decrease pressure drops.

To offer customers custom solutions, Aidro has invested in AM facilities and processes alongside its conventional manufacturing capabilities. The company’s AM department features metal 3D printers, 3D scanning technologies and ISO9001 and AS/EN9100 certifications, all leveraged to deliver products to customers, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), while reducing production lead times for volume quantities of end-use components, spare parts or on-demand rapid prototypes.

“This acquisition advances Desktop Metal’s strategy to support our major OEM customers with proprietary design and application know-how as well as through a combination of best-in-class AM products and high-value parts production across killer applications for AM 2.0,” says Ric Fulop, founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. “Aidro brings a talented team with decades of experience in hydraulics and fluid power systems and a passion for leveraging AM to deliver performance advantages to their customers. We’re excited about the acquisition and look forward to advancing AM 2.0 for high-volume production of hydraulics, valves, fluid power systems and many more end-use parts in development with Aidro.”

“Additive manufacturing offers benefits unmatched by conventional manufacturing, and once Aidro realized the advantages of leveraging AM, we quickly allocated resources to develop expertise and take advantage of the opportunity,” says Valeria Tirelli, co-CEO and president of Aidro. “This partnership is the next step in our AM evolution, and now, with access to Desktop Metal’s scale and industry-leading AM 2.0 technology portfolio, including its volume production-focused metal binder jetting solutions, we’re thrilled at the growth potential for Aidro.”

“We are thrilled to join forces with Desktop Metal,” says Tommaso Tirelli, Co-CEO and VP Business Development of Aidro. “This partnership will enable us to continue investing in the expansion of AM for next-generation hydraulic solutions to disrupt massive industries such as oil & gas and aerospace.”

“With the collaboration and support of Desktop Metal, we will be able to take our AM capabilities in hydraulics to the next level,” says Alberto Tacconelli, GM of Aidro. “We are ready to embrace AM to develop innovative products for our customers, leveraging mass production technologies to achieve affordable part costs and high-performance designs that overcome the limitations of conventional manufacturing.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.